work · led by our creative advisor · Zero · 2025 onwards

Building Zero: product, brand and a 12-person design team from nothing

Atul Khola joined Zero as the third person in the company and spent about a year and a half designing the product from a blank file, building a 12-person Design & Experience team, and shaping the brand, the investor story and the launch.

role: Head of Design & Experience

Context

Zero is an AI-native learning and hiring product. The brief was to help people learn the skills a job actually asks for, before they have the job. The first version put a learner inside a simulated company as an intern, with a manager, a project, coworkers and a presentation at the end.

There was no product, no brand and no design team when Atul joined. Over roughly eighteen months the work went from an empty Figma canvas to a product about to reach its first users. He has written the full account himself; this page is the short version, from the angle of what a startup can take from it.

What was done

• Designed the product around six parts: roles, companies, projects, coworkers, presentations and proof. The team deliberately avoided the familiar course dashboard so the product would not read as one more course.
• Took the product from a single simulated company in version one to Zero World in version two, a city of companies a learner moves through.
• Kept useful effort in the product. Learners take their own notes and defend their work to stakeholders who question it, because that is the practice.
• Built the identity with a small team across product design, motion and illustration, including a voice onboarding concept whose behaviour came from the logo.
• Made a four-minute AI-generated film to explain the product to investors when a live shoot was out of budget, plus the decks, memos and demos around it.
• Hired and led a 12-person multidisciplinary team whose designers prototype in code and ship production pull requests.
• When the beta needed users and there was no marketing team, the designers ran acquisition themselves: ads split into hook, middle and call to action so one part could be tested at a time.

Outcomes

• A global waitlist of 10,000 people for the beta. source: atulkhola.com/zero
• A Design & Experience team of 12, built from one. source: atulkhola.com
• More than 20 international recognitions for the brand's Why Zero website. source: atulkhola.com/zero
• At the time of his write-up the product was preparing for its first users, so there are no usage or retention numbers to report, and we do not invent any. source: atulkhola.com/zero

Credit

The work was made by Zero's Design & Experience team. Atul names the people involved in his own account. No awards are claimed for this piece.

What this means for your project

Most early teams we talk to need the same three things at once: a first product, a brand and a way to explain both. Zero is the long version of that problem. Our Product Design Sprint and Brand + Site sprint are the short, fixed-price versions, run by people who have done the long one.

Relevant offers: Product Design Sprint ($25,000, 6 weeks) · Product design ($15,000–$45,000) · Brand identity ($15,000–$35,000). All prices →

Read more

• Building Zero, the full story on atulkhola.com
• Zero

Filed under: edtech · consumer apps.

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